Pleasant Ridge human rights law takes effect

The 22nd human rights ordinance in Michigan takes effect today in Pleasant Ridge following a quick and quiet community dialogue on the issue.

Royal Oak came close to having the No. 22 distinction but opponents forced the issue onto the November ballot. City officials there are concerned it could get ugly as it did in 2001 with national organizations trying to sway voters.

Pleasant Ridge now joins Ferndale, Huntington Woods and Birmingham among Oakland County communities banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodations.

Ferndale voters passed the measure in 2006 — 15 years and three trips to the ballot box from the time it was first proposed in 1991.

However, Pleasant Ridge officials managed to take up the issue in February, get it on an agenda in March, and hold a public hearing and adopt the law in about two months.

“There has been a lot of fanfare elsewhere but not for us,” City Manager Sherry Ball said. “I think the No. 1 reason is the people that make up this city. They are so accepting. This is something Pleasant Ridge has always done, always lived, so it isn’t a surprise or a big change.”

The Pleasant Ridge City Commission voted unanimously April 9 to adopt a human rights law that also prohibits biases based on HIV status and gender identity. Opponents could have used the petition process to block the ordinance from taking effect, which happened in Royal Oak after its

City Commission passed a human rights law in a 6-1 vote on March 4.

Fred Birchard of Royal Oak gathered 1,226 signatures from residents wanting to put the question of a local law on human rights up for a citywide vote.

Pleasant Ridge also has a mechanism to block ordinances passed at City Hall.

“You have to have the freedom to object but I haven’t had any calls,” Ball said.

Mayor Ralph Castelli said the only comments he received that could be considered objections were from Pleasant Ridge residents questioning how a human rights ordinance could benefit a city with a tolerant reputation.

“The only issue was people thinking we don’t need it because, well, we don’t need it,” Castelli said. “Unlike other ordinances, this isn’t to address a problem. Some people thought it was time to have it.”

Castelli was out of town for the April 9 vote but Tuesday he said the measure has his support.

“Pleasant Ridge can benefit from the standpoint of people seeing the ordinance on the books,” he said. “Those who don’t know how inclusive the city is will take it as a sign.”

Craig Covey, Ferndale’s former mayor, said cities need to pass human rights ordinances because Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act doesn’t make it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

“Ideally, the state should deal with it, but until then we’ll do it city by city,” Covey said. “It’s a steady drumbeat and it won’t be long before it’s heard in Berkley and Madison Heights. It’s really due.”

Covey said he admires how the issue unfolded in Pleasant Ridge, which has the largest number of same-sex couples in Michigan per 1,000 households.

“It was classy,” he said. “Ours was done with much drama. It took us more than 14 years and three tries.”

In 1991, Ferndale voters rejected the ordinance 2:1. In 2000, it failed by 117 votes. In 2006, voters passed it 2:1.

“It totally reversed,” Covey said.

There’s a reason why the cities with human rights ordinances are clustered in south Oakland County, he added.

“The gay community followed Woodward (Avenue) north over the decades when they couldn’t gentrify Detroit,” Covey said. “That’s why the cities in the Ferndale to Bloomfield Hills corridor are at the forefront.”

Pleasant Ridge has the seventh highest number of same-sex couples for every 1,000 households in the United States, according to 2010 U.S. Census data analyzed by the Williams Institute at the University of California. The city has 59.5 same-sex couples per 1,000 households.

In Michigan, there are 21,782 same-sex couples, or about 5.6 for every 1,000 households, the study said. Statewide, Pleasant Ridge is followed by Ferndale, Huntington Woods, Ypsilanti and Royal Oak.